Melampy mistreated by press, party

I'm just now getting to read the article titled "Hot Contests," [the July 21 cover story subtitled, "Democrats clash in dog days of summer."] How my wife has dealt with life as a politician I will never know. Maybe your reporter did not mean to sound degrading but, she definitely was not flattering.

Pam Melampy has worked long and hard at what she does and is not just her sister's employee. She also worked in the same office long before Debbie Shipp was clerk. She is a seasoned veteran of the court system.

How reporter Lisa Provence came to the conclusion that Llezelle Dugger called anyone out is beyond me. Pam announced her candidacy on April 15th long before Mr. Garrett had even decided to run for another term. Dugger was the third person to announce.

Pam purposely announced early so her name would be listed first on the ballets and any other benefits that it may offer, such as newspaper articles.

Less than a week after her announcement, the Democratic Party decided not to follow the state rules for caucus and changed the rules to list alphabetically– changing the rules after the game had begun. You would think if the party was to change the rules it would have been for the incumbent. This I could understand.

In my opinion, there are no "Hot Contests." The party only had one forum for the clerk position. As mentioned in your article, it pays 112k and it's only worth one forum?

I like many others have many questions. Don't the people have the right to really see what these candidates have to offer before they make such an investment? It's sad that it comes down to a popularity contest. Pam has lived here her whole life and knows a lot of people so hopefully this works to her advantage.